Courses for Students

AP Chinese course is designed for students who have completed 4-5 years of Chinese or have equivalent proficiency in Mandarin Chinese. The course will reinforce the language skills acquired in previous years and further developed the language proficiencies in oral and formal written communication. Harvest Shouhuo is the primary textbook used in this course, along with other supplementary materials, such as AP practice test, Chinese stories, newspaper articles and video clips. The course engages the students in an exploration of both contemporary and historical Chinese, including topics as schools and family, foods and sports, festivals and customs. The course is delivered entirely online in Chinese. Students will acquire more sophisticated linguistic elements to increase their language abilities. The primary goal of the course is to help students master the advanced-level Chinese language structures, communicative strategies, reading comprehension skills, linguistic accuracy, and cultural awareness through the use of multimedia authentic materials and real-life language tasks. In order to maintain the integrity of AP standards, all AP course midterm and final exams must be proctored.

At this level, students continue their preparation for the Advanced Placement (AP) Chinese Language and Culture Exam. Students continue to develop their integrated skills of listening, speaking, reading and writing, and will be guided to pay more attention to their usages in interactive daily life and formal settings. Meanwhile, students will deepen their knowledge of Chinese culture through Chinese history, Chinese literature and arts. Harvest Shouhuo is the primary textbook used in this course, along with other supplementary materials, such as AP practice test, Chinese stories, newspaper articles and video clips. The course engages the students in an exploration of both contemporary and historical Chinese, including topics as travelling, famous people and history, literature and arts. The course is delivered entirely online in Chinese. Students will acquire more sophisticated linguistic elements to increase their language abilities. Language skills are enhanced through interpretive, interpersonal, and presentational activities. Listening skills are developed during class discussions, listening exercise, watching video clips movies, etc. Reading skills are improved through various readings of essays and articles, newspaper articles, advertisements, biographies, plays, and poetry. Speaking skills are practiced through debates, pair and group discussions, acting from scripts and interview. Written strategies are introduced to guide students organizing the compositions; students practice the written skills through bi-weekly compositions. To help students get familiar with the test format, assignments designed in AP exam format and the previous AP exams are provided. Students are frequently assessed on character-handwriting skill, vocabulary usage, expressive abilities and listening and comprehension skill. In order to maintain the integrity of AP standards, all AP course midterm and final exams must be proctored.

The AP® Spanish Language and Culture course is a rigorous course taught exclusively in Spanish that requires students to improve their proficiency across the three modes of communication, further divided into six course modes. The course focuses on the integration of a wide variety of authentic resources from all over the Spanish-speaking world. These resources include online print, audio, and audiovisual resources; as well as traditional print resources that include literature, essays, and magazine and newspaper articles; and, also a combination of visual/print resources such as charts, maps, tables, and graphs; all with the goal of providing a diverse learning experience. Through these authentic texts, students gain meaningful linguistic and cultural growth and insight, leading to greater communication and also interculturality, using rich, advanced vocabulary and language structures as they build proficiency in all modes of communication toward the intermediate high to advanced low proficiency levels. Also central to the course are thirteen task models, to be scaffolded, taught, and practiced often, preparing students for the same tasks on exam day in May. These task models represent the six course modes and the eight skill categories of AP® Spanish Language and Culture, each further broken down into skills and learning objectives, all leading to greater proficiency in communication and culture.

The AP® Spanish Language and Culture course is a rigorous course taught exclusively in Spanish that requires students to improve their proficiency across the three modes of communication, further divided into six course modes. The course focuses on the integration of a wide variety of authentic resources from all over the Spanish-speaking world. These resources include online print, audio, and audiovisual resources; as well as traditional print resources that include literature, essays, and magazine and newspaper articles; and, also a combination of visual/print resources such as charts, maps, tables, and graphs; all with the goal of providing a diverse learning experience. Through these authentic texts, students gain meaningful linguistic and cultural growth and insight, leading to greater communication and also interculturality, using rich, advanced vocabulary and language structures as they build proficiency in all modes of communication toward the intermediate high to advanced low proficiency levels. Also central to the course are thirteen task models, to be scaffolded, taught, and practiced often, preparing students for the same tasks on exam day in May. These task models represent the six course modes and the eight skill categories of AP® Spanish Language and Culture, each further broken down into skills and learning objectives, all leading to greater proficiency in communication and culture.